RPI becomes first university with access to super computer Watson VIDEO

Dr. John E. Kelly, senior vice president and director of IBM research with Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson and John Kolb, vice president for information services and technology and chief information officer, announced Wednesday that it will provide a Watson system to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first time the computer is being sent to a university. (Mike McMahon / The Record)

TROY -- What is...Watson? That appears to be both the answer and the question for the digital "Jeopardy!" champion that will soon be up and running at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first university in the world with access to the supercomputer software.

IBM and RPI announced Wednesday that a modified version of Watson would be utilized by faculty and students to understand and expand the full potential of the program, which will use about 15 terabytes of memory -- the equivalent of approximately 15,000 USB drives or more than 15 laptop computers, explained Jim Hendler, chair of the Computer Science Department.

"We want to do new things with it and add new capabilities," he said. "With our brilliant students, I am sure amazing things will be done with Watson. I have a lot of goals."

The framework for the physical box that will contain the majority of the software started being transported to the Rensselaer Tech Park earlier this week. The whole system is expected to be working within the next few weeks and definitely by the end of the semester in May.

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"It's hard to answer how big Watson is exactly since you could run Watson on a regular laptop but it would be very, very slow," Hendler said.

The location of Watson is still being determined due to network details, since the college wants Watson on a separate network. It will either be situated at the Tech Park outside of Troy or on the main campus.

Hendler, one of many connected with RPI who has worked with Watson before and after its debut on the national trivia game show, said he has been used as a consultant with the project and helped invent technology that Watson uses to organize data.

Two-day training will be held through IBM with the RPI staff who will in turn train the students. About 20 people at RPI will be able to access the Watson program at once.

"The entire Rensselaer community joins me in thanking IBM for enabling us to receive and welcome Watson technology to Rensselaer. The system will be an unprecedented platform to help students and faculty meet the challenge of our university's motto, 'Why Not Change the World?'" said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson.

IBM has said they intend to allow a couple U.S. and a couple international higher educational institutions to utilize Watson.

As part of a Shared University Research Award granted by IBM Research, IBM will provide RPI with Watson hardware, software and training, officials said.

"The award signifies our strong partnership with Rensselaer and our commitment to ensure New York state has the skills and capabilities to lead in Big Data applications and the next era of computing," said Dr. John E. Kelly, senior vice president and director of IBM Research.

Eventually, classes will be set up in a curriculum of coursework revolving around the supercomputer program, Hendler said.

There is a three-year agreement between RPI and IBM but officials expect that the college will have the software indefinitely.